The All Caps Mentality

WHY DO PEOPLE TYPE MESSAGES IN ALL CAPS?

Every once in a while, I'd visit a forum, newsgroup, or some other social medium. And I'd bump into a message that is typed in all caps. Although I think it's hard to read, it doesn't bug me enough to become furious. On the other hand, I always see a follow up flame message by someone else, such as . . .

"Turn off your damn caps lock so your message is readable without straining the eyes, and someone might aswer you.

"All caps is SHOUTING OUT LOUD on usenet, and quite rude in an entire message, not to mention extremely hard to read. Why do you think that they make the little letters in the first place?"

Now, I've read these kinds of remark enough to understand why people do not like messages in all caps. But I have seen few all caps defenders. The only thing I can think of myself is that maybe some of them are on old computers, like the Commodore 64, where all caps is the norm. But even the Commodore 64 now has software that uses lower caps by default. So that excuse is a bit far fetched.

So, I'd like to open up this thread for those of that do like to post in all caps and explain to us why you type in all caps. What's your excuse?

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